Paige Cothren was the first player to sign a contract with the newly formed New Orleans Saints.

They can remember the most picayune details of their club's 45-year history.

Without hesitation, they can recite fact after arcane fact. Who scored the first touchdown (John Gilliam). Who held for Tom Dempsey's famous kick (Joe Scarpati).

Even who recovered the fumble when Hakim dropped the ball (Brian Milne).

But few if any can tell you the name of the first Saint.

"Not many people knew me back then," said Paige Cothren from his home in the piney woods of Houston, Miss. "If I would have made the team it would have been better."

Before Billy Kilmer and Doug Atkins were signed and Danny Abramowicz drafted, there was Cothren, a semi-retired kicker from Ole Miss who became the first player to sign a formal contract with the Saints on Feb. 2, 1967.

Cothren still has the contract he signed only days after Tom Fears was named head coach. The details of the big day are sketchy to Cothren today. He remembers meeting in the lobby of a downtown hotel but not much else.

The story of how he became the original Saint is fascinating nonetheless.

Cothren was born and reared in a football family. His uncles, Buster, Ray and Barney Poole, were All-Americans at Ole Miss and would eventually star for various teams in the NFL.

Cothren followed in their footsteps at Ole Miss, where he played both ways and set national collegiate records for field goals in a game and a season.

"That was before the 'soccers' took over kicking," Cothren said. "I had all the records simply because I was the only regular field-goal kicker."

Pro football was still in its embryonic stage when Cothren graduated from Ole Miss in 1957. He was drafted in the 22nd round by the Los Angeles Rams and played three seasons for the Rams and Eagles from 1957 to 1959.

"I remember my buddies asking me when I got back, 'Where you been, the Army?" Cothren said. "They had no clue I was playing pro football."

Cothren retired in 1960 and was out of football for several seasons when the Atlanta Falcons called him for a tryout during the final week of their inaugural season in 1966. He was somewhat ambivalent about the tryout. Retirement had treated him well. He was making good money operating a line of Piggly Wiggly supermarkets and a small newspaper near his home in Mississippi. He maintained his kicking form by working at football camps and practicing in the field he'd built behind his home.

Nevertheless, he loved the game and after making 92 percent of his kicks during practice that week, the Falcons offered him a deal for the final week of the season and the entire 1967 season.

Tom Fears was an assistant on Norb Hecker's first Falcons staff that year and pulled an end-around on his colleague. He told Cothren he was in line to get the Saints head coaching job and told him he wanted him to be his kicker.

"I hadn't been called those names since I left the college football field," Cothren said.

Cothren's signing barely registered on the local radar. It was announced in a two-paragraph brief under the headline "Cothren is First Saint Signee" in the local paper Feb. 4, 1967.

At the time of Cothren's signing, Saints fans were focused on the upcoming expansion draft, which was scheduled to take place a few days later in New York. Big names like Max McGee, Jim Taylor and Doug Atkins were expected to be available for the Saints.

"Fears told me, 'I don't want to have to fool with all these kickers. Me, I know you can kick under pressure. You're going to be my kicker,'" Cothren said. "I had played on all the special teams before, but I told him, 'At my age I am not interested in sticking my helmet into somebody and I really am not interested in somebody sticking their helmet into me.'"

Cothren, though, had competition. Charlie Durkee a diminutive free-agent kicker signed by the Saints at one of their massive tryout camps that spring. Durkee beat out Cothren during training camp.

"It came down to Durkee and me," Cothren said. "He kicked with a special shoe. His dad was an iron-worker and he made him a special steel-toed shoe. He kicked with it for one year and it got around the league. The league ruled the shoe illegal and they took it away."

The steel clearly didn't help Durkee's accuracy. While he converted all 27 extra-point attempts that season, he missed 18 of 32 field-goal tries.

Cothren returned to Mississippi and retirement. He earned only a fraction of the $20,000 he was scheduled to earn under the terms of his contract.

He would eventually become a Christian counselor and teacher. He also became a well-published author, writing 29 books over the past three decades. He passes the time these days selling his books at local art fairs and speaking about his faith.

Even though he never officially played for the Saints, he said he still has a soft spot for the local team. After the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, he dug up the original two-page contract at the behest of his daughter, who kiddingly advised him to try to sell it on eBay.

Instead, Cothren had it laminated and keeps it at his home in northeast Mississippi, where he displays it proudly now in the wake of the Saints' championship season.

"You always have a connection to the teams you played for," said Cothren, who will turn 76 on July 11. "I'll always think that way about the Saints."